Marketo vs Pardot comparison

Adobe and Salesforce are both solutions in the Marketing Automation category. Adobe is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.3, while Salesforce is ranked #6 with an average rating of 7.4. Adobe holds a 14.4% mindshare in MA, compared to Salesforce’s 3.8% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of Adobe users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of Salesforce users who would recommend it.

Marketo

Read 26 Marketo reviews

1,951 Views
1,554 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Pardot

Read 12 Pardot reviews

1,119 Views
386 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

Marketo

Pardot

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 6, 2025

Pardot and Marketo are competing in the marketing automation platform category. Marketo stands out with more comprehensive features, making it a preferred choice despite Pardot's competitive pricing and support.

Features: Pardot offers effective lead nurturing, seamless integration with Salesforce, and intuitive design. Marketo provides extensive analytics, robust campaign management, and dynamic content personalization.

Room for Improvement: Pardot could improve its analytics depth and expand integration options beyond Salesforce. Marketo's complexity and requirement for configuration expertise could be barriers to ease of use and quick deployment.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Pardot ensures straightforward deployment with Salesforce, offering prompt support. Marketo requires complex deployment but supports larger enterprise environments, providing comprehensive assistance that may require additional expertise.

Pricing and ROI: Pardot's lower upfront cost benefits smaller businesses or Salesforce users, realizing ROI quickly. Marketo's higher cost corresponds to advanced features, offering long-term value through detailed analytics and insights.

To learn more, read our detailed Marketo vs. Pardot Report (Updated: March 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Marketo vs. Pardot

March 2025

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Helped 845,040 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Marketo

Ranking in Marketing Automation

2nd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Marketing Management (4th)

Pardot

Ranking in Marketing Automation

6th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Marketing Automation category, the mindshare of Marketo is 14.4%, down from 16.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Pardot is 3.8%, down from 4.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Marketing Automation

Featured Reviews

PradeepKumar25

Associate Manager at Tech Mahindra Limited

Useful for lead capture and engagement across social media platforms

Before Marketo, I worked on the Oracle Eloqua platform, both B2B-based. Currently, I'm working on Salesforce Marketing Cloud. So, these are the three platforms on which I have good hands-on expertise. One key reason platforms like Salesforce Marketing Cloud are gaining traction is that they invest in marketing campaigns. They conduct many virtual and live events, aggressively marketing their products. This strategy convinces C-suite executives to buy into and implement the Salesforce platform, something that other bigger platforms lack. Most companies are migrating to Salesforce. I've migrated one of my projects from Marketo to Salesforce and encountered many opportunities where companies want to migrate from Marketo, HubSpot, or Oracle Eloqua to Salesforce. I've worked on Oracle Eloqua, which is also a B2B platform, and I've also worked on Marketo. The lead scoring, table structure, and rules we apply are quite straightforward compared to Marketo. In Marketo, it's a bit clumsy. Regarding lead scoring or moving leads through the sales funnel, Oracle Eloqua is better, but it's a bit pricey. So, Marketo ranks second in lead scoring or managing leads, and it highly depends on the respective CRM. The tool tracks significant events, such as form fills on websites or social media handles. All this data is captured and stored in Marketo for analysis. Marketo Analytics is connected with Adobe Analytics. This integration offers detailed reports on total clicks, views, form fills, subscriptions, lead conversions, and more. It's straightforward compared to Oracle Eloqua, which has its own Oracle Business Intelligence suite.Marketo's reporting tools are easy to use, making it a plug-and-play solution for anyone.

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Vikram Rawani

Pardot Consultant at Target

Offers an easy initial setup phase and good ROI

With Pardot, users can do the segmentation based on their requirements. You can segment your prospects based on their interests, locations, companies, or the sales cycle. You can also use the engagement studio to create a journey for the people you have segmented with the help of automation feature of the tool. The aforementioned area consists of the most useful features I found in the tool apart from its out-of-the-box features. The integration between Pardot and Salesforce is beneficial if you know how to share the leads that a company finds useful so that they don't have to invest in manual work or do anything blindly to reach out to leads. Users can segment the leads using the features that the tool provides. I recommend the product to those who plan to use it. If a business is into B2B marketing and can afford to purchase Pardot, then they should buy it. If the product of a company is good, then Pardot can help multiply such an organization's ROI. Based on the product and how the sales and marketing team works, the tool can be useful. In short, the tool can be as good as the person who is using it. I rate the tool a nine out of ten.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"The product has been stable."

"The main feature of Marketo is sending out emails, so that would be the most valuable feature."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is Smart Campaigns."

"The smart campaign looks quite interesting and useful."

"I like that Marketo is user-friendly and has an easy view. It's like a one-stop solution for everyone. It is very good, and you can categorize leads in different ways. You can also create your custom objects and enjoy good connectivity."

"We are scoring based on behavior without pressure, and it keeps producing excellent results."

"The most valuable feature is the scoring."

"The valuable features are list uploads, email campaigns, generating reports,source tracking, and lead attribution."

More Marketo pros

"The tracking and automation of outbound messaging is the solution's most valuable aspect."

"Pardot's most valuable feature is its B2B marketing capabilities."

"Campaign tracking is a valuable feature."

"The solution can be easily integrated with Salesforce."

"It's easy to create email templates and landing pages."

"Pardot directly integrates with CRM, specifically Salesforce, which has an excellent R&D team."

"The most valuable feature is the customization of the solution."

"The product is stable."

More Pardot pros

Cons

"One limitation is the user limit. For bigger organizations with large audience sizes exceeding, let's say, 500k, the solution may not be as efficient as larger enterprise platforms like Salesforce or Oracle Eloqua. However, Marketo is one of the best platforms for mid-scale and small-scale organisations."

"Marketo filters are not very efficient, and timely updates or features could improve this aspect."

"There is a bit of room for improvement in the level-one support team. It relies too much on documentation."

"I have encountered issues when I had to use filters repeatedly. It would have been helpful if I could duplicate them directly, instead of dragging them. Also, having an option to save filters for future use would have saved a lot of time, especially when dealing with multiple filters."

"Customer support could be more helpful."

"Based on my clients ' comments, there is room for improvement in Marketo. For instance, Oracle's Eloqua had much larger databases than Marketo a few years ago, handling millions of records. Marketo has been catching up but doesn't hold the most extensive possible databases. This is less of an issue for B2B, but for B2C customers, who have millions of records, It also lacks features of HubSpot, which should be incorporated. Marketo could benefit from supporting more extensive databases and incorporating some of HubSpot's features. HubSpot is cheaper, and while Marketo is not the most expensive, it's not the least. They would be a better competitor to HubSpot if their pricing were lower. These products are typically priced per user per month."

"The user experience needs improvement, particularly in terms of ease of use and navigation between projects."

"Segmentation in Marketo is limited to a maximum of 20 segments. Depending on the company's specific needs, these segments can be based on various attributes such as company, industry, or other values. Sometimes, there's a lag when sending data from Marketo to any CRM. It can take around five to fifteen minutes for the report to sync."

More Marketo cons

"Lacks sufficient free custom fields."

"The user interface could be made more intuitive and user-friendly."

"Pardot needs many improvements in terms of email design and design studio functionalities."

"When it comes to integration with third-party tools, Pardot's APIs are not that robust."

"Technical support has been quick and helpful every time."

"Pardot must be synced with Salesforce."

"When we compare it to other automation tools, in Pardot, I'm not able to see any drag-and-drop options. We have to work on an HTML template itself."

"The solution is quite expensive, at least, for smaller teams."

More Pardot cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is expensive compared to others."

"Marketo's pricing depends on the number of contacts and the level of features you need. Compared to other platforms like Oracle Eloqua and Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Marketo is generally more affordable. Like other platforms, it offers different packages based on your needs."

"It is expensive. We have a yearly license."

"The initial pricing was excellent, but the pricing for renewals is not as good."

"The fee for Marketo includes the number of users and the database size. If we ask for a unique feature, it will cost extra."

"The pricing is not cheap, but it's not that expensive either."

"I'm not sure about the cost because I don't get into this aspect. Clients normally take care of that. I only know that it is costly, and I don't think there are any additional costs to the licensing."

"The licensing cost usually depends on the users."

More Marketo pricing and cost advice

"We pay about $4000 a month."

"Make sure you do not pay for features that you may not need."

"It is a competitively priced product, considering what it provides."

"In terms of pricing, Pardot is cheaper than Marketing Cloud."

"The price of this solution is expensive. However, you are going to receive good value for money. They could improve by reducing the price."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

21%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

Insurance Company

Educational Organization

64%

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

Insurance Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Marketo?

One of the most important things about Marketo is its focus on GDPR compliance. It helps you follow GDPR and CAN-SPAM rules. For example, with Marketo, I won't accidentally target audiences without...

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What needs improvement with Marketo?

The user interface could be improved. I would like to see an updated UI for 2025.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Marketo?

As a seasoned Marketo Expert with a decade of experience and a deep understanding of Adobe's ecosystem, I can confidently say that the primary use case for Marketo lies in empowering businesses wit...

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What do you like most about Pardot?

It has no limit for sending marketing emails.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Pardot?

Pardot was somewhat costly for our requirements, nonetheless, the capacities of the item were limited.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Pardot?

Pardot needs many improvements in terms of email design and design studio functionalities. It lacks a robust design studio, limiting our ability to perform various design activities efficiently. Yo...

See all answers

Comparisons

Salesforce Marketing Cloud vs Marketo

Compared 36% of the time

HubSpot Marketing Hub vs Marketo

Compared 19% of the time

Oracle Eloqua vs Marketo

Compared 16% of the time

SAP Marketing Cloud vs Marketo

Compared 10% of the time

Adobe Campaign vs Marketo

Compared 3% of the time

More Marketo Competitors

Oracle Eloqua vs Pardot

Compared 73% of the time

More Pardot Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Marketo

March 2025

Download Marketo product report

Buyer's Guide

Pardot

March 2025

Download Pardot product report

Overview

Marketo is an all-in-one marketing solution that was created by marketers for marketers. Founded in 2007, Marketo is branded as marketing software that is easy, powerful and complete.

Organizations have access to multiple marketing and sales tools when they use this solution, such as Marketing Automation, Consumer Engagement Marketing, Real-Time Personalization, and Marketing Management.

Adobe

Pardot, a salesforce.com Company, is an easy-to-use B2B Marketing Automation suite that helps sales and marketing teams maximize efficiency and increase revenue. Pardot's lead management software features CRM integration, email marketing, lead nurturing, lead scoring, and ROI reporting to help marketing and sales teams work together to generate and qualify sales leads, shorten sales cycles, and demonstrate marketing accountability.

Salesforce

Sample Customers

Marketo has a customer base of thousands of companies, including Sony, Citrix, BrightTALK, Curves International, HootSuite, Hyundai, SanDisk, and Samsung Electronics.

Arketi Group

Buyer's Guide

Marketo vs. Pardot

March 2025

Free Report: Marketo vs. Pardot

Find out what your peers are saying about Marketo vs. Pardot and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.

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